Interior of the inn

The painting from the collection of the Potocki family, former owners of the castle, depicts a genre scene: the interior of a tavern with its guests and servants stoking the fire using a bellows. The colour scheme is dark, with shadows gathered in the corners of the room. In the interior is a group of men talking at a table, drinking wine; there is a woodcutter standing with a saw in the centre of the painting, and in the background, two women preparing a meal. The interior of the tavern has a barrel vault ceiling. There are shelves with bottles of spirits on the walls, as well as bagels strung on a string. In the lower left corner is the painter’s signature, “H. Pillati 1860”. Henryk Pillati (born January 1832 in Warsaw, died April 1894 in Warsaw) was a Polish painter, illustrator, and caricaturist. After graduating from the Warsaw School of Fine Arts, he supplemented his education abroad, in Paris, Munich and Rome (at that time, studying in Munich was practically an obligation for every painter). From 1860, he created illustrations for books and Warsaw periodicals, such as the very popular Tygodnik Ilustrowany, Biesiada Literacka, Wędrowiec and Kłosy. In his illustrations, he depicted life and current events, often with humorous accents. He was a painter of genre scenes (such as the Łańcut painting), battles, and historical events, showing the history of Poland. He also created paintings in which he showed the poverty in cities, such as The Ragwoman.